Mirai Nikki - Survivor
by Heatseeker96
Summary: An alternate ending for the Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) anime. Starts during the night Yukki and Yuno spent together. Contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the ending of the Mirai Nikki anime, since large parts of my story run parallel with the story it's based on. (Cover image drawn by myself.)
1. Unfulfilled Contract

**Author's note:** Yes, I'm still alive! It took me quite some time, but here is my new story: an alternate ending for the anime Mirai Nikki (Future Diary). Something quite different than the Mass Effect oneshots I previously uploaded to this site, but I hope you'll enjoy it regardless.

This story starts near the ending of the anime and the first two chapters will closely follow the original story, to set the stage for the part where I started changing more things. That's mostly going to happen near the end of my project, so don't be surprised if what you're reading at the start of my story seems familiar.

Finally, reviews are always appreciated. I'd love to hear your thoughts and read your constructive criticisms!

* * *

 **July 27** **th** **, 2012**

"I love you, Yuno."

"Me too, Yukki."

Those words were spoken in the softest way possible, when the couple was laying together on the futon in a dimly-lit room. They were still processing what happened earlier: Yukki finally agreed to Yuno's advances and asked her to take a bath together in the small barrel in her garden and afterwards, they finally became one. It was the day before the world was supposed to end, but it nevertheless felt like the ending of a fairytale. The part where the lovers would live happily ever after.

They turned their faces to each other and smiled, slightly blushing because of their intimate time together.

"We took a pretty long way to get here," Yukki said to break the silence, "but I think this was meant to happen from the very start."

"Yukki…" was the only thing Yuno, the pink-haired girl laying next to him who overflowing with happiness, replied. Before she could speak further, Yukki continued talking. Something else had been on his mind for the past few days and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring it up.

"So Yuno…" he spoke reluctantly, "I want you to tell me the truth."

The girl's eyes widened, her lips parting slightly when she let out a short, surprised sound. Although Yukki's voice still had a happy tone because of what happened earlier, she felt he wanted to discuss something serious, which wasn't a habit of his.

"Why did you lie to me about dad and mom coming back to life?"

 _No… Not now…_ Her eyes widened even further after hearing what he had been thinking about for so long and quickly reached under the futon with her arm. She feared this moment would come and prepared for it, even though she had hoped to end the day in a happier fashion. Her arm instantaneously found what she was looking for, grabbed it and swung towards her lover, while she never broke eye contact with her target.

Yukki heard metal moving over the floor, followed by a flash when the object in Yuno's hand reflected the light emitted by the lamp next to her. He closed his eyes in fear, then instinctively jumped back to dodge the axe which was hurling towards him. _She's going to kill you too!_ he remembered, the warning spoken as one of Akise's last words before Yuno killed him. But he didn't believe him back then, when Yukki murdered the few friends he had. He didn't believe them because he knew Yuno would never do that to him. Yet right now, that was exactly what was happening. _No, she can't be doing this…_

"Yuno!" he cried while trying to dodge the weapon, "Yuno!"

Instead of feeling pain when the weapon penetrated his body, the sound of cracking wood could be heard. Yuno had slammed the axe in the floor next to her side of the futon, instead of the place where Yukki laid. He sat upright and looked at the weapon he thought would kill him. "Yuno…" was all he could say, this time in a much softer voice.

The girl's hair was moved and now partially covered her face after what she pulled off with the axe. "I'm sorry, Yukki," she said with a voice which was exceptionally soft for how she had just reacted to his words. After a small pause, she continued. "I was lying to you. I said that everyone would come back to life if you became god. I wanted to cheer you up. Whether bringing people back from the dead is possible or not was the first thing I asked Deus when the game started."

Yukki could only stare at her in surprise, puzzled about how she could be so calm after practically threatening to kill him. A grim reminder of the double nature of the person he was dealing with.

She reopened her eyes and seemed to desperately stare at the ceiling and tears started to well up in her eyes. "I'm already plenty happy. So kill me, Yukki."

Now his astonishment grew even bigger. "N-No! If I kill you, I may become god, but you won't come back to life."

"But you will live," she said, showing how badly she wanted him to survive.

"No! If I have to kill you, then I choose not to become god!" Yukki replied. "I'll die with you!" He had seen too much bloodshed, too many lives had been lost in this survival game. He couldn't bear to add another casualty to the already long list of lives who had been lost after it started. Not only from the participants, but also of innocent people like his parents, or his friends, who tried to keep him out of harm's way for so long.

Yuno looked up to the ceiling. Her crying had stopped, but the desperation hadn't left her face. If anything, it only seemed to have grown stronger.

"So you're going to say that again…"

Yukki broke eye contact with her and looked forward. "But I'm glad," he said with a faint smile. "Now all my worries are gone." He closed his eyes again, bowing his head. "Other than that strange message from Akise-kun."

"Message?"

"It was a strange message. It's impossible."

If Yukki had looked to the girl at his side, he would've noticed the desperation had finally lifted from her face to make place for a different emotion. Now Yuno looked anxious. Not that she was purely fearing that Yukki had learned the secret she tried to keep from him with all her might. No, it was the type of fear one had before going into battle. Before needing to battle with someone dear to you. "What did it say?"

But Yukki didn't look at her and continued talking. "On Akise-kun's cellphone, he'd written about you. He wrote that you'd already become god once. That this world is actually a second one, replayed by going back in time."

Yukki was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear steel being pulled from the floorboards. He didn't notice the small flash of light, caused by the object reflecting the light of the small lamp in the room. He didn't see the object being raised high into the air. But he looked back at Yuno just in time to see it coming down at him. Identifying the threat, he closed his eyes and squeaked, and instinctively jumped back. He timing was just right. This time, Yuno's axe didn't hit the floor next to the futon. This time, it was going for the kill.

"Yuno?!" he shouted, frightened by her quick change of temper.

"It's too early, Yukki," she said, slowly pulling the axe out of the pillow it had ripped open.

"What's wrong, Yuno? What's going on?"

"I wanted… I wanted at least this one day to be a happy one with you."

Her head was tilted down and again, tears were escaping from her eyes. Yukki, who was now laying against the wall, was terrified and watched her in silence. Yuno stood up, only wearing her purple lingerie. She pointed the axe towards her lover, as if she wanted him to prepare him for her next strike.

She attacked again, swinging her weapon at Yukki, who could barely dodge the incoming blade. He felt how it brushed against his hair while he jumped back. Before Yuno could attempt a third attack, he jumped through the door and fled through the hallway of her house, unsure what to do next. _I have to get out of here…_ He knew she would probably beat him in any form of combat, so he needed to flee away as far as possible and think of a plan. He heard the wooden floor creak behind him. Yuno was coming. It gave him incentive to flee even faster.

 _Just a moment ago, she was so…so…_ _happy and peaceful._ _What the hell changed?_

He instinctively opened the first door he came across, only to stand at the edge of the hole in Yuno's backyard. There was nowhere he could go, he was finished now. "Why, Yuno?" he desperately shouted trough the hallway. Turning around to face her, he felt two hands firmly pushing him. He fell into the pit and made a hard landing. Then, everything turned black.


	2. Searching

"Ow"

Yukki let out a grunt when he felt the pain of his body impacting the surface. Pain which subsided while he realized he didn't land on dirt, but on a floor. _What happened?_

"Do you want to know the answer, Yukiteru?"

Yukki didn't believe his ears when he heard the high-pitched, nasal voice. While he still couldn't see the one who pushed him in the hole, he would recognize that voice anywhere. It was Mur Mur.

He managed to open his eyes and crawl upright, facing his surroundings. "This is… the classroom?"

It turned out he somehow landed in the back of his old classroom at school. He was in something which seemed to be a projection of his memories of the day he needed to fill in the "Your Dreams" survey. Indeed, the text on the blackboard was exactly the same as that day: Survey "Your Dreams" Submit by 16.00! Only two students remained in the classroom: Yuno and himself.

He walked towards Yuno and noticed her page was still empty. She sighed and stood up.

"Yuno…" Yukki said, reaching out at her. Instead of tapping her shoulder, however, his hand just passed through her body, as if she were a ghost. She kept walking forwards, clearly not noticing the boy who stood behind her.

She stopped next to the desk where the old Yukki sat. "What's wrong? You can't come up with something either?"

Yukki heard himself reply the same as he did on that exact day. "Last week, dad and mom divorced…"

"It's only natural that you can't touch her," an unexpected voice behind him said.

Yukki turned around to find Deus' little servant pass through the wall behind him. "Mur Mur!" _So this is all your doing…_

"This is a vision of the past created by you and the Second. The Second had already killed her parents by this time." She had a mischievous smile on her face, one she didn't often show. Yukki wondered why she took so much pleasure in seeing this scene.

Meanwhile, the conversation between Yukki and Yuno in the background had continued. "Then, would you like to go see the stars with me?" Yuno smiled as she spoke those words, the ones that lead to her wish: to become his wife.

"She had no dreams for the future," Mur Mur continued, "and you were the one who gave her hope."

"I did?"

The Yuno confirmed as much to the old Yukki. "I'll be your bride in the future."

"Sure, when we grow up," he had replied. Yuno blushed and displayed one of the cute smiles she always showed when she was happy.

"You're joking…" was the only thing Yukki could exclaim when looking at what happened in the past.

But that wasn't the only revelation he would soon see. "Follow me, Yukiteru," Mur Mur spoke as she started soaring towards the blackboard.

"To where?"

"You want to know, don't you? Why the Second is out to kill you." She held her hand in front of her and started creating a portal on the blackboard. She grinned as she looked towards the boy who had no idea what was happening. He felt that whatever Mur Mur would show him, would be bad. Yet, he was dying to know what Akise's final text meant and why Yuno tried to kill him as soon as he mentioned it. His curiosity overpowered his worries and he slowly crawled through the portal, with Mur Mur following closely behind him. 

It felt like they were floating through space, although Yukki knew this wasn't true. Yet, one couldn't help but feel that way: floating weightless through the infinite darkness, which was faintly illuminated by thousands of glowing rectangles.

"What is this?"

Mur Mur replied. "Everything here is a vision from the past, or all the way from the distant future."

He looked at one of the rectangles which they passed. It seemed like a TV screen, showing how Yuno spied on him at the school gate. The little screen flew by too fast for him to see how the scene would further evolve. "What is this all about, Mur Mur?"

Again, she grinned. "My role is to make the game interesting. After all, it's all for fun."

 _You have a weird notion of "fun"_ , Yukki thought.

She summoned another glowing screen in front of Yukki. "Look."

It portrayed a dark room. He recognized Yuno sitting against the wall, looking at a small rectangular cage holding two corpses. "Mom, Dad, I'll introduce you to my future husband eventually." The girl smiled and looked happy, even in front of the macabre sight.

Yukki realized that Akise and Mur Mur had spoken the truth. "I was the only thing holding Yuno together…"

Mur Mur looked back at him. "As you heard, the Second's dream was to become Amano Yukiteru's wife." Yukki already knew as much. While he initially thought Yuno's wish for the future, as she told him during the survey, was purely to cheer him up; she had shown that she truly wanted to become his bride throughout the survival game. "But it wouldn't be possible."

"Why?"

"The survival game started soon after, didn't it? It's predetermined that only one will survive." She paused for a moment, looking back at Yukki as to see if he acknowledged her statement. "Still, the Second rejoiced. She was happy she could spend more time with you, even though one of you has to die at the end of the game. Yukiteru... what were you planning on doing?"

"I… I was…" he said, unable to come up with an answer. He remembered the promise he made to Yuno after his father died, the one he used to justify all his actions later on. "I was going to bring everyone back to life after becoming god and make Yuno happy." The remorse was clearly noticeable from the tone of his voice. _But now, I know that's impossible._

Mur Mur asked another question. "If you'd rather die with her, what's the difference from getting killed by her?"

Yukki remained silent. This time, he truly didn't know what to say.

"Here's where it gets interesting. How the first world ended."

"What?!" Yukki cried, "The first world?"

Again, Mur Mur didn't bother to hide she was taking pleasure in telling Yukki the entire truth and grinned. "Oh, I thought Akise told you the secret." She summoned a bunch of new screens around them. "Take a look at the visions."

The visions portrayed how the contenders of the survival game came to their end. He saw how Yuno strangled the Fifth to dead, how she stabbed the Twelfth, how he himself pointed a gun at Minene on the day she bombed their school… "Wait… They're all a little different from the past I know."

"Good catch," Mur Mur applauded him. "What you've seen thus far has been from the first world. The world you're living in now is the second world."

 _The second world…?_ His mouth opened in surprise, though he could only remain silent. Before he had the chance to inquire Mur Mur for further details, a bright, glowing orb appeared in front of them. Yukki had to use his hands to shield his eyes from the radiation while the orb expanded, consuming both of them. The light was quickly replaced by darkness, and he noticed they were transferred to a dimly lit room. A room in Yuno's house.

He looked at the floor and gained a startled expression. A boy and a girl were laying on the floor, hand in hand. They didn't breathe and empty pill bottles were laying on the floor next to them. Yukki wasn't shocked that much by finding out about the dead teenagers, but he was by noticing who they were: Yuno and himself.

"The First and the Second from the first world killed all the other owners and survived," Mur Mur commented, "then chose to die together."

"Wh-What…" Yukki still couldn't grasp this new revelation, even with the evidence being right in front of him.

The little servant continued. "This is where the Second's first mistake happened."

Yuno's hand started twitching. Then she started struggling to open her eyes. She succeeded, after some effort. The girl then crawled upright. Clearly, she wasn't dead. She spat out the pills which were supposed to have killed her. She probably only took one of them to fall asleep, then pretended to take the others not to make Yukki suspicious.

Like she was praising some deity, she rose her arms into the air. "Hang in there, Amano-kun. I'll become god and bring you back to life." Her surroundings transformed into Deus' throne room. Yukki was still laying next to her, dead. "Huh? That's strange. He's not getting up…" She started shaking his shoulders, increasingly violently as the time passed. "Hey, wake up!"

"The body can be resurrected, but the soul can't," Mur Mur explained, confirming Akise's earlier explanation. Again, she seemed to have much pleasure in what she was showing. "The Second from the first world didn't know that until this point."

"I thought Yuno knew about this after asking Deus about it."

"No, she never asked him," she corrected him, "she tried and found out."

As many times before, Yukki was also startled this time. "Tried?!" He looked down at Yuno desperately crying over the body of the boy she loved so much.

"After becoming god and gaining control of time and space, she made a wish. 'I want to return to a time when Yukiteru is still around.' That was her second mistake."

The cupola of the throne room opened and a bright light encompassed them all. "The destination was…" 

They were teleported to a new room. A room in the second world, the only world Yukki had known for all his life. It was dark, but Yukki could recognize Yuno sitting against the wall, staring at her dead parents in their cage. He heard her muttering about showing them her future husband. Assuming that would be Yukki himself, he felt a little uneasy knowing she would like to introduce him to two corpses.

The girl sitting against the wall was shocked when a shadow suddenly approached her. Yukki could recognize the silhouette of the Yuno which had become the new god, carrying an axe. Before her victim had time to scream, Yuno forcefully brought down her weapon. The other Yuno was fatally wounded and the room got covered in her blood. Yukki felt like his heart had just been pierced with a dagger, like every time one of his close friends had died during the survival game.

The Yuno from the first world was panting, her clothes also covered in the blood from her other-worldly self. "That'll do… Now… There's no need for the two of us…" All that time, she never ceased looking at her victim.

"Do you get it, Yukiteru?" Mur Mur said with malicious pleasure, enjoying how Yukki was shaking next to her. "This is the truth the Second most feared you'd discover!"

"Then the Yuno that's around right now… is the Yuno who's reliving the second world after she went back in time," Yukki said. "The third corpse… That's the Yuno who belonged to this second world. There were two of them, so she was killed by herself?" He started to cry. "So they're both the real her?"

"Yuno!" Yukki desperately shouted. Ignoring the fact that this was just a vision from the past which he couldn't change no matter how hard he tried, he instinctively shouted hoping that would somehow help the murdered girl. "Wake up Yuno! Yuno!" He even tried shaking her by her shoulders now, but his hands just went through her like he was a ghost.

Seeing how the boy was startled finding by his hands floating through the body, Mur Mur felt the need to remind him of the reality they were in. "I told you, Yukiteru. This is just a vision from the past. You can neither touch nor interfere with anything."

"This is the Yuno who said she'd become my bride!" he shouted through his tears. "Yet, she was killed by herself… Yuno… Yuno!"

Mur Mur's amusement at seeing the boy's desperate reaction to what happened quickly changed into shock when the murdered Yuno's body started quivering.

With the last vitality she had left, the attacked Yuno tried to talk. "His voice… I hear… Amano-kun's… voice…"

Yukki was shocked and Mur Mur exclaimed that it was impossible for her to hear Yukki's words. Meanwhile, the murderous Yuno just kept staring at the body, like nothing had happened.

The dying Yuno dragged her shaking, blooded finger over the wall next to her and tried to write something. She her final words made up the message she was desperately writing on the wall. "Help... Help… me… A… Amano-kun…"

At the sight, Yukki was no longer sobbing like before. He burst into tears, seeing how much he meant to the girl who had just died. The girl he promised to marry. And the one who would've supported him throughout the survival game. Not the imposter he ended up falling in love with.

"Yu-no… Yuno!" The walls and ceiling broke open, and he felt the ground began to rise beneath him. The night sky appeared again, and he found himself back in the pit he fell in while trying to escape Yuno. She was already waiting for him at the side of the pit, still wearing her lingerie and carrying the axe. Her face was emotionless. 

"Yuno, why did you…"

"So you saw it, Yukki."

"Why did you kill yourself?!"

Before she got the chance to reply, Mur Mur noted that orbs started to appear everywhere around them, destroying any matter they collided with. "Looks like this place is starting to get dangerous too. It's a bit earlier than planned, but let's move." After her words, the ground beneath them started to break open and Deus' orb appeared. It took them high in the sky above the city.

"Yuno!"

"Don't be so hard on her, Yukiteru," Mur Mur replied to Yukki's angry words. "The Second lost her parents and you and was therefore driven to the edge. And there were some unforeseen events too. You opening that sliding door was the worst thing that could've happened to the Second. If the third body hadn't been found, everything about it being the real Gasai Yuno would've never happened. If the Second hadn't been accused of being a fake, she would've openly used the retina lock to the huge vault. As she made small adjustments here and there, history started to take a different path. Don't you feel any sympathy for her?"

 _If she didn't kill herself in this world, none of those things would've happened,_ Yukki thought, _of course I don't feel sympathy for her!_

Before he could riposte Mur Mur's defense of Yuno's actions, the little creature already decided that the time for the final battle had come. "Okay, here we are."

"The Causality Cathedral," Yukki whispered.

Yuno started to walk towards him. "Yuno, why did you try to kill me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't give me that! Stop playing with your memories!"

The girl simply started laughing at his comments. "Okay, then let me ask you something, Yukki. Why did you start talking about dying together? Remember what you said? You said you wouldn't become god if it meant killing me, that you'd rather die with me."

"Well…"

"You promised that you'd kill me and live."

He remembered that promise, but felt like he couldn't bear himself to keep it anymore. "How do you expect me to kill you…"

"Then what's the problem with me killing you?!" she shouted with the typical, scary laugh she had when she was about to start shedding blood. "Right? I mean, the world's going to end unless one of us becomes the new god. We're all going to die! Then why shouldn't I become god? Then I could go back in time and play the game with the Yukki of the third world!"

"You'd kill me just for that?"

"What's the point in both of us dying? If you won't kill me, then I'll kill you."

Yukki couldn't stand her saying that like it was the most normal thing in the world. "If we repeat the game, we'll end up killing a lot of people again!"

"Either way, everyone will die at this rate. You'll understand if you become god. This world is entirely a game of its own. We're just pieces in it. Besides, you killed a lot of people to make your wish come true, didn't you?"

He knew she was right and was ashamed realizing the crimes he committed to get here.

"You can die now, Yukki," she said with a happy face, already looking forward to experiencing everything again with the Yukki from a third world."

"Yuno… You're insane!"

Shocked by his words, Yuno became enraged. "What's insane is this world that won't let me and Yukki be together!" 

Mur Mur gestured with her hand and the orb they were standing on shrank, disappearing from underneath Yukki's feet. He fell down the depth below. _My parents… My friends… They all died in vain. I made a mistake… I killed everyone because I was selfish, because I didn't see Yuno from who she truly was. I'm no different than her._ He remembered the Ninth demanding him to take responsibility after she helped him. _I probably can't take responsibility for things anymore…_

On top of the orb, where Yukki was standing just a moment ago, a dark robe appeared on Yuno's body. "The First is now toast," Mur Mur commented, "all you have to do now is gain control of this world's causality and you'll be god."

Nevertheless, Yuno looked down at her diary and discovered that it was filled with messages of her desperately trying to find Yukki after he fell. It took some effort to ignore them, but she put away her cellphone without looking for her lover.

Mur Mur grabbed Deus' core and solemnly announced: "I now declare the winner of this survival game to be the Sec-"

Her announcement was interrupted by a sound coming from Yuno's pocket. The pocket where she put her phone.

"Static?!" Mur Mur exclaimed, "why could the future change at this point?!"

Yuno looked at the screen: 7/28 00:10 – Yukki's come to see me! I'm so happy!

 _That means he survived,_ she thought.

Looking down, she saw Yukki clinging to the rocks underneath the surface she was standing on, trying to climb to the top. "Yukki!"

"Yuno, I may just be another game piece to you…"

"Don't come, Yukki…" She had never seen him as determined as at that moment.

"But you're someone important to me!"

"No…"

"Yuno, I will save you!"

Now Yuno was the one who started crying at his words. However, the boy's heroic efforts were cut short when the rocks he was holding onto broke and he was again falling into the dark depth below. He wouldn't be able to grab onto the wall this time.

While everyone thought Yukki would be really dead this time, his fall was stopped by a black shadow which soared through the sky and grabbed the falling boy's clothes.

Even Yukki himself didn't expect such a sudden rescue to happen. "You're… the Ninth!"

A grin appeared on the face of his rescuer. "You're pathetic. Stop making me babysit you, you idiot!"

Mur Mur had also noticed Yukki's unlikely rescuer, a woman who should've already been dead. "How is this possible? Why are you alive!?" Enraged as she was, the small creature started launching black orbs at the flying duo. "Take this! And this! And this! And this!"

Minene didn't seem to care and easily dodged all of Mur Mur's attacks. "Aren't you playing favorites with the Second too much, Mur Mur?"

"Shut up!" She launched another attack, this time bombarding them with missiles. Minene stopped them with a wave of her hand.

"That Deus… So that's how it is…"

"Looks like you've found your answer, huh." This time, it was Minene's turn to attack by slamming her hand into the ground, causing a small earthquake which hurled towards Mur Mur and Yuno. Mur Mur took Yuno and dragged her towards a portal she was making.

"Time to go, Second. I'll deal with these two. Time leap!"

Yuno disappeared into the portal. Before it could close, Minene took Yukki by surprise and threw him towards it.

"Now grow up, take some responsibility and stop her, Yukiteru! I won't be there to save you next time."

The boy screamed as he flew towards the portal. Mur Mur took advantage of her distracted opponent by attacking her with an energetic beam. "Deus has died and his influence ends here when I deal with you, puppet!"

The final sound Yukki heard from the second world, was Minene's scream when she was struck down by Mur Mur's attack. Still not fully grasping how she had saved him from the death, he entered the portal and was floating through a sea of stars. "Stars?" he whispered to himself. 

It didn't take long before Yukki could feel himself falling through air, in the night sky above Earth. He crashed into a small room on top of the roof of an apartment building, where his fall was stopped by a pile of cardboard boxes.

"Aww…" he grunted, trying to get upright after his painful fall. "Where am I?" He looked around to his dark surroundings. "And where is Yuno?"


	3. Reset

**July 28** **th** **, 2010**

 _It's July 28_ _th_ _today,_ Yukki noted while looking at a digital clock on the building next to the one he landed on. _July 28_ _th_ _, 2010. I jumped back two years ago to while I should still be in primary school. Could this be the third world Yuno wanted to create after my death?_

Static coming from his phone interrupted his thoughts. 

7/28 2:36 [Gasai Yuno's Home]  
Yuno comes leaping through time from the past.

7/28 2:40 [Gasai Yuno's Home]  
Yuno kills the third world Yuno.

7/28 2:42 [Gasai Yuno's Home]  
Amano Yukiteru is killed by Gasai Yuno from a knife stab.

DEAD END 

_At least my diary confirms that this is the third world. But Yuno… She's going to kill the third Yuno two hours from now and then she'll kill me!_ He sighed. _But I don't care about myself anymore. Rather than that, I need to do what I couldn't do in my own world: protect this world's Yuno. Perhaps then I can stop the first world's Yuno from repeating her plan over and over again… I'm lucky I had a two-hour advantage. Let's put it to good use!_

The boy found the exit of the building's roof and didn't come across anyone while he was walking downstairs. The streets outside were also quiet. Here and there, Yukki saw a car passing by or some people drinking in a bar, but the city was mostly abandoned at this time of the night. It didn't take long before he found his way and ran towards where he remembered the Gasai house being.

When he finally arrived at his destination, it was already 1:50 am. The lights were turned on, even though it was that late. Instead of charging in, Yukki remembered that he hadn't even thought of what he would do when he came across this world's Yuno. Since they weren't going to the same school yet, Yuno could impossibly know who he was, so why would she trust him? More so, how would he even explain that her future self would try to murder her? He heard a voice and decided to move closer to the building and listen.

It was a female voice Yukki hadn't heard before. "Why won't you come home, dear?"

 _That's right, Yuno's parents were still alive at this time. That means this must be her mother…_

"You're leaving me alone with the girl. We shouldn't have taken her in if it was going to be like this." _She sounds desperate._

He heard her hanging up the phone. "He doesn't care about me…" A door opened inside the house. "You don't either, do you? Then why are you such a bad girl? Why can't you do what I tell you to do?"

Yukki heard this world's Yuno for the first time, while she tried to reply to her distressed mother. "I-I'm sorry, mom…"

The mother didn't seem to notice or care that she was scaring her daughter. "Why can't you understand my pain? Why won't you try to help me? You hate me, don't you?"

"I'm… sorry…"

"You despise me, don't you?"

Yuno had begun sobbing by now. "No…"

"Yes, you do. You hate me. You talk back to me, try to make me suffer, isn't that right?"

"No… I would never… mom…"

"Neither he nor you need me. This isn't my home. There is no place for me here."

"Mom… Mom…"

"I'm not welcome here… You won't forgive me?"

"Please, mom…"

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry I'm such a bad mom…" Her mother started crying as well. "Goodbye… Goodbye, Yuno…"

"Wait… Wait!"

Yukki heard the door being shut by the desperate mother. Since she didn't follow her, Yuno would probably be locked up in her cage. Yukki was shaking realizing what he had overheard. _She wasn't only physically, but also emotionally abused by her mother…_ Knowing how much he had suffered because of his parent's divorce, he had no idea how hard it would be dealing with the hardships the young Yuno had to go through.

A few minutes later, he heard footsteps coming towards him. He could hide just in time before Yuno's mother opened the front door and walked away. She didn't even bother locking the door after her, which gave him a perfect opportunity to get to this world's Yuno. Carefully entering the house, Yukki tried to find his way amidst the darkness. He found the door to the room where he remembered finding Yuno's dead parents in his own world. Unsure of what he would find inside, he slowly slit open the door.

"Yuno?"

A soft, but hurtful sound was his reply. _What's this smell?_ He saw the silhouette of a girl sitting inside a cage, in a puddle of her own urine. An empty plate lay next to her. Yukki's eyes fell wide open when he saw the state Yuno was in. _She's eating tatami and choking on it! I have to do something!_

He instinctively grabbed his phone and dialed the emergency number.

"Please send an ambulance, a girl is choking. Yes, this is Sakurami City first district, Gasai residence."

When he hung up the phone, static again erupted from his diary. It indicated that an ambulance would arrive at the house around the time the first world Yuno would arrive, and that Yuno would be brought to the hospital.

 _Good,_ he thought, _I won't abandon you, Yuno. I will save you even if it means changing this world's future._

It was then that the house's ceiling was ripped open and the other Yuno, accompanied by Mur Mur, appeared on a floating orb.

"Yuno… I won't let you kill her!" He ran inside the abused Yuno's cage and held her in his arms. The first world's Yuno didn't seem impressed by Yukki's sudden burst of courage.

"Your diary that predicts everything that happens around you is quite a bother. It can easily overturn a Dead End flag. That's why I prepared them, the people you want to meet the most, the people most dear to you."

A vision of Yukki's parents appeared inside the sphere Yuno had been standing on earlier. "Mom! Dad!"

"Now, let's start. Time to kill each other Yukki, perhaps you'll be reunited with your parents in death."

"Yuno… I don't want to kill you…"

She looked down. "If you don't want to… You'll only make things easier for me."

As she started to walk towards him, Yukki felt his courage drop. All the resolve to make things better he felt while entering this third world, while Minene sacrificed herself for him, seemed to disappear as he saw her get closer. He knew he wouldn't be able to kill her, although that was the only way he could end this survival game. And even if he would try to fight Yuno, she would definitely overpower him without much effort. The only thing Yukki could do was hold the third world's Yuno even tighter in his embrace, close his eyes and face the inevitable. 

Instead of feeling a blow from Yuno's knife, he suddenly heard the building they were in collapse. Opening his eyes, all he could see was complete darkness.

"Let's go, second."

A white light flashed and suddenly he found himself laying on a red carpet, rather than the wooden floor he was laying on before. Looking around him, he saw rows of benches, a little altar and a small construction with a cross drawn on it, resembling a church. Behind that, there was a large, glass wall through which he could see the skyline of the city. _We're back in the tower where Marco and Ai were killed,_ he noticed.

Looking even further, he suddenly noticed a small figure had appeared next to him and this world's Yuno. Mur Mur.

"Whaaaa!" The boy started screaming noticing Yuno's accomplice was right next to them, to which the little creature started laughing.

"Is that how you thank me for saving you, First?"

"You teleported us here? But… just a moment ago, you were helping Yuno kill me."

"That wasn't me, fool! Don't you see that I'm different than the one who was helping the Second?" She pointed to her forehead, presumably to indicate that something was different there.

Noticing Yukki hadn't the slightest clue of what she meant, she sighed. "The first world's Mur Mur who is helping the Second had a cross there, caused by her carrying the core of your world's Deus."

 _Thinking of it, the other Mur Mur suddenly did have a white cross on her head, while this one doesn't._

"Who are you then?" Yukki said.

"I'm Mur Mur, I thought you already knew that?" Disappointed that the boy didn't seem to understand what she meant, she started to explain. "When the Second won the survival game and therefore became god, the other Mur Mur became her servant. As they created the second world, where you lived, Mur Mur knew that I, the Mur Mur of this world, would notice something was wrong and inform Deus of it. She therefore locked me up, so I missed all the fun of the game Deus and I had been planning! Luckily, Mur Mur's attention dropped while she traveled to this world and I, Mur Mur, could escape her prison! Unfortunately, the other Mur Mur had already manipulated the game so much that the Second almost won…"

"That's why Mur Mur suddenly tried to kill me, she needed to make sure that Yuno won so her deceit wouldn't be discovered, and so her god wouldn't die."

Mur Mur seemed happy to see that Yukki finally understood what she tried to say. "Correct!"

"But why did you save me then? I thought Deus and you were neutral during this entire game."

"Well… The Second cheated because she came from another world and because she was aided by the other Mur Mur! I would disqualify her and make you the winner of this game, but can't do that since the other Mur Mur has Deus' core."

"So if we could get hold of that core, you could make me win the game without needing to kill Yuno?"

"In theory… But then we would need to take it back from the other Mur Mur and I don't think she'll willingly let go of it. The only thing I can do is keep her from attacking you, so only you and the Second would need to fight each other. At least the game is neutral again that way."

Yukki, who had briefly become hopeful that there was a solution to end this without needing to kill Yuno, was again saddened by hearing that he would need to deal with Yuno without anyone's aid. _Minene was right,_ he thought, _I really need to grow up and fix my own problems._

"Mur Mur?"

"Yes, Yukiteru?"

"Whatever it takes, I will save Yuno, the third world's Yuno and everyone else!"

She sighed. "You can't possibly do that, First. After all the time you spent in this survival game, I thought you knew there are no happy endings in this world."

"You never know until you try!" he shouted. "If there's a miracle that can be reached by fighting to the end, then I want to see it."

"Fool, you're really still a child… But very well, I'll try to help by keeping the other Mur Mur's involvement as small as possible. Just remember that you'll have to take care of the Second yourself."

His face saddened upon being reminded that. "I'll try…"

"Good," Mur Mur said.

"Can you take us to the school? That should be easier than fighting in this tower."

Yukki had felt his resolve grow as Mur Mur carried Yuno and him through the sky. It was a beautiful sight, seeing the city lights from up there and he wished he had the chance to enjoy it longer, without worrying about the final battle that would decide whether he could save everyone or not. Mur Mur dropped them on the roof of his old school.

"I'll hide myself until they arrive, so the other Mur Mur won't see me coming."

Yukki nodded and the creature flew into the darkness of the night. 

He carried Yuno into the building. _Damn, she's pretty heavy._ He heard noise erupt from his cellphone. _The future's changed again._

7/28 3:52 [Sakurami Middle School]  
Yuno is after me with her Yukiteru Diary.

7/28 3:55 [Sakurami Middle School]  
The third world Yuno isn't waking up.

7/28 4:06 [Sakurami Middle School]  
Yuno catches up to me. 

_At this rate, Yuno will catch up to me…_ He looked at the girl on his back. "It'll be all right, Yuno. I'll protect you, because I love you. Even if we've never met before, I still love you."

She was still asleep and couldn't hear his words. _Come to think of it, why did I fall in love with her?_ He finally reached the door of his old classroom and dropped the girl inside. _Class 1-B. It all started in this classroom, when Yuno and I promised to watch the stars together after being married. Odd that this is also the place where everything will end._ "Wait here for me, Yuno. I'll put an end to this fast." He didn't know whether he believed his own words.

Again, noise came from his phone. _Damn, it says that Yuno ambushes me in a few minutes… Come to think of it, there's something else I need to do if I truly want to save everyone._ He opened the messaging program and started typing a text for Kurusu Keigo.

Kurusu, your son has a heart condition and will die soon if it's not treated. He may survive if you take him to the hospital soon.

Yukki didn't know whether Kurusu would believe him when he got such a message from a stranger, but at least he did something to try and save his son. After all, he wanted to save everyone in this world, not only Yuno. Satisfied with his actions, he walked outside of the classroom and opened the door, where he saw Yuno was already waiting for him. She looked emotionless and carried a knife, ready to kill.

"Let's end it, Yuno."

She kept watching him in silence. After a few seconds, the silence was broken by a big orb crashing through the building's outer wall. After it had passed, Yuno was already dashing through the debris.

"You're going to die, Yukki!"

Yukki quickly squatted to dodge Yuno's knife attack and ran away from her. She quickly jumped after him, knife first, but Yukki pushed her arm away and again avoided injury.

"Yuno!"

A quick glance at his diary revealed to Yukki how Yuno would execute her next attack, allowing him to dodge her blow which would've mortally wounded him otherwise. He jumped at her, causing both of them to fall down the staircase. Yukki got up to his feet first and rushed towards the nearby fire hose, hoping to use the water as a weapon.

"Mur Mur, he's going for the fire hose!" Yuno shouted towards her accomplice.

Yukki predicted what would happen and jumped away just in time before the hose he held was crushed by Mur Mur's orb. 

Outside, Mur Mur was clearly enjoying aiding Yuno in her battle, wreaking havoc in the school building by using her orb as a fast wrecking ball.

"Look at that Yukiteru, running around and getting away. I wonder how long he'll last."

"Longer than you will!"

"What!?"

Yuno's accomplice was surprised by hearing her own voice shouting at her. As she turned to face her side, she saw the second world's Mur Mur fly right towards her. The two collided in the sky and started fighting.

"You! You shouldn't be here!"

"Then you should've guarded me better, traitor! I will enjoy locking you up in the cage which was my prison for all this time."

While the duo was fighting, Yuno's Mur Mur wasn't able to direct her powers at Yukki anymore and her orb was laying still in the heavily damaged school building. 

Inside the building, Yukki was slammed into a wall while trying to dodge the last attack of the orb and was hurt. Groaning, he looked at the next entry in his diary. 

7/28 4:11 [Sakurami Middle School]  
Amano Yukiteru is stabbed by Gasai Yuno and dies.

DEAD END 

_Damn, I will die from a stab wound from Yuno's knife… But I still have time before the Dead End._ He put away his phone and started walking over the rubble from the collapsed walls. _I'm being too reckless, I need to be more careful if I want to see this through to the end. I won't let Yuno stay in the third world. I'll change her mind, no matter what it takes… And then, I can die in peace and make Yuno the god of the second world. Everything will work out that way and this is the only way to make sure no one else will need to get hurt again._

He neared an opening in the roof, where the orb had caused a big hole in the building's structure. Yukki saw Yuno stand on the edge of what was the roof before everything got damaged. In the background, he could hear the two Mur Mur's fighting each other with all their might, but they were somewhere out of sight.

"Yuno! Stop chasing after me!"

She seemed surprised by his exclamation. "I refuse!" The girl kept looking down sternly, her hair subtly moving because of the slight evening breeze.

 _There's only one way I can do this. I need to take her diary away, so she won't be able to change the future. I'll take it away from her… and then convince her!_

Yukki suddenly leaped forward, launching himself upward over the pile of debris in front of him. _The Dead End flag said I would get killed by a knife, so nothing should happen as long as Yuno doesn't hit me._

"Yuno!"

"Yukki, why are you getting in my way?"

"Because I love you!"

Yuno, surprised by Yukki's sudden declaration of his love for her, still threw her knife right at Yukki's head. _Shoot, I wasn't expecting her to throw it._ Unable to dodge the weapon, he felt the metal blade graze his neck. He felt blood dripping from the wound, but not nearly enough for a dangerous injury. _She missed?_

He looked up towards Yuno and saw that she was equally surprised. _She threw the knife in response to what I said… could it be that my words flustered her?_ Yukki reached the roof and threw Yuno to the floor. He managed to hold down the hand in which she carried her cellphone, making her unable to look at her diary.

"I've adverted the Dead End, Yuno!"

The girl simply started laughing.

"Please, Yuno, you need to go back to the second world. Become god and-"

"Yukki, I just realized something!"

"Huh?"

"Why didn't I notice it earlier? I love you, too."

While she said that, she didn't look at Yukki with a loving look. Instead, it seemed she was grieving the fact that she had to kill him in order to be able to stay with him forever, by repeating the survival game with the Yukki's from all the different world she could create.

"Deus' core! Give control of the sphere to me!"

 _What,_ Yukki thought, _she had his core with her all this time, not Mur Mur!?_

"I love you too, Yukki!"

Suddenly, the sphere Mur Mur was controlling earlier was ripped from where it was stuck in the school building after the creature was attacked by her second world equivalent. It floated high into the sky, casting its shadow over where Yukki was sitting. He heard Yuno laughing as the sphere came crashing down on top of him.


	4. Format

The next thing Yukki saw was the inside of his house. Strangely enough, his mother was making dinner while his father was reading a newspaper at the kitchen table. _Dad? Mom? You're not dead?_

"What's wrong, Yukki-kun?" his father said. "Have a seat. We're planning to go see the stars, right?"

"Tonight we'll eat your favorite beef patties," his mother added.

 _This isn't right…_

He rushed out of the kitchen and almost fell as he ran up the staircase towards his room. Entering it, he saw a multitude of other surprises.

 _That's the jacket I wanted… Why? The barrels on these darts too… And the magpie I always wanted… How are all those things here?_

A voice came through his roof. "Because they're all things you wanted."

Looking upwards, Yukki saw a tear in the ceiling through which Yuno was looking down at him.

"This world's an illusion I made using the power of Deus' core. It's a world where you can gain anything you wish for."

"Yu**!" Yukki tried to say her name, but found to his surprise that his voice was entirely distorted. _I can't say her name…_

"What did you do?"

"Nothing," she replied. "Simply put, neither myself nor my name exists in that world."

"Yu**!"

"Yukki, we should break up," she looked down as she said that, clearly heartbroken while saying those words. "I was wrong. I thought it would all end when I killed you and started my life over with the third world's Yukki. But it looks like I can't, my head is all messed up. I need to put a clear end to this…"

"Yu**…"

"I love you, but I won't go back to the second world."

"Why not?! If you go back there, Yu**, everything will work out!"

"No! If I do that, I'll lose you! Without a god being chosen, the second world will perish. So we can't go home together without a god being chosen… Rather than that, I will lock you in there and go meet the Yukki of the third world. And when the second world ends you will also go away and I'll be god… Without me needing to kill you. It's perfect!"

While the girl looked happy thinking of the future ahead of her, Yukki was deeply saddened hearing that she rejected his plan entirely. _I was naïve thinking she would agree to that,_ he thought. _She's right, one of us needs to die if we don't want our world to perish. And she's willing to kill me as long as that means she can continue living with the Yukki's of the next worlds._

She continued. "I need a Yukki…"

"That doesn't make sense… That's why you're going to dump me?! You'll go on killing people like you're crazy and risk your life again?!"

"Please… Don't make me say it…"

"Yu**!"

"Yukki… If it's just someone I can obsess over, it can be anyone."

 _Huh?_

"You too. You don't care who it is as long as they protect you, right?"

She was almost crying when the scene around Yukki suddenly changed. He was now in a dark classroom, with a girl standing next to him.

"Amano-kun," she spoke.

"Wakaba-san?!" Yukki fell over from his surprise at seeing her again. His old crush was wearing a white dress and glasses which reflected the faint moonlight which shined through the tear in the ceiling in such a way that he couldn't even see her eyes.

"Amano-kun, I love you."

"No! Wakaba-san wouldn't say that!"

As he spoke, the girl reached behind her back and opened the dress' zipper. She took it off, revealing her naked body, and started approaching Yukki. "I love you."

"Stop this!" The terrified boy ran towards the furthest wall of the classroom, closed his eyes and covered his ears.

"I love you, Amano-kun."

The girl clearly didn't care about what he said and started caressing his back, before leaning onto him so that her uncovered breasts were touching him.

"Stop it!"

He pushed her back and tried fleeing the scene. The tear in the ceiling started closing.

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! It has to be Yu**! Yu**! You're the only one for me, Yu**!"

The last glimpse he caught of the girl he truly loved was her turning her back to him and saying goodbye. After that, the tear was closed and he was locked up inside the fantasy world.

 _It's true I used Yuno to survive. It may have started out a strange relationship, but… still I… I still love her! I need her, not only because she protects me!_

Sometime later, Yukki found himself sitting at the table in his kitchen. His father sat across him, while his mother was still working on their dinner.

"I'm looking forward to tonight, Yukki-kun," his father said, "I even have a telescope ready."

"Really?!" the excited boy spoke. He was really looking forward to spending this night together with his parents. His time in the fantasy world caused him to forget everything about the survival game and the third world. The only thing he knew was this world, this dream he lived in.

"Aren't you lucky, Yukki-kun," his mom added.

"We'll get really close to the stars today," his father continued.

"Yeah!"

"What do you want to see?"

"Me?"

Before he could answer, his mother already brought their plates. "Oh, here it is! It looks delicious!"

"Eat up before it gets cold, you two! There'll be enough time to discuss the stars when we're on our way to the observatory."

"Okay then, ittadakimasu!"

"It's delicious, mom!" the happy boy spoke.

"Uh-oh. If you eat so much, then maybe there's no need to pack a dinner."

They all started laughing at her joke.

"I've made plenty for our bentos, too. I even packed wings."

Yukki smiled. "I'm so looking forward to it. Can I have seconds, mom?"

"Sure."

She got a distressed look on her face, as did his father. "Yukki-kun? Why did you just start crying?"

"I… just remembered a dream I had this morning."

"A dream?"

"Yeah, a strange dream. I had a diary that could tell me the future and I was part of a survival game."

"That sounds interesting."

"In that dream," Yukki continued, "I'm in love with a kinda strange girl."

"A strange girl, huh? You look like someone who would choose a normal girl," his father said, intrigued by his story. "What made you like the girl?"

Now Yukki really started crying.

"I guess… the same reason I love both of you… Because she was always with me…" 

Outside of the sphere with Yukki's fantasy world, Yuno had made her way towards the ruined classroom where her third-world self was laying unconsciously on the floor. With Yukki being locked up in her sphere and the second Mur Mur being held up by Yuno's own servant, she was the only obstacle standing between her and being able to fulfill her wish.

 _If I kill her, I can participate in the game again. I can be part of the survival game with the third Yukki in the third world. There won't be any problems. I have said goodbye to the previous Yukki and will meet the next Yukki. Everything will be all right…_

"Dad… Mom…"

Yuno heard the girl on the floor wake up. _That was me when I was still innocent. Me when I had yet to kill dad and mom. Me before the survival game…_ Walking closer towards her, she put on her hood to make sure she wouldn't be recognized by this world's Yuno.

When there were only a few meters left between them, the girl opened her eyes and looked at her, confused that she was laying on the floor of a destroyed school building. "Who are you?"

"Me?" the other Yuno answered. "I'm someone you know very well. Let me tell you your future."

"My future?"

"Yes, I know what your future will hold." She crouched to be closer to her third-world self. "Listen to me, Gasai Yuno. Your mom's mental state will worsen and your dad will rarely come home because of work. Or maybe he just won't want to come home. Your mom will become more violent with you. Painful abuses from her await you. Eventually, you will drug them with sleeping pills and shut them in the cage. You will only want a moment of escape from them… You will only want them to feel your pain… But instead…" Yuno started looking at the ground, remembering the pain she felt during that period.

Looking back up, she resumed. "But luckily, you won't have to suffer any more pain."

She grabbed her knife, ready to kill the innocent girl on the floor.

"That's not true," that girl said in a faint voice, "I'm not in any pain."

"You're lying!" the first-world Yuno shouted. "Of course it's painful! You are suffering!" _How can't she feel the same way if we're exactly the same person?_

"No, mom's sick and dad's just busy with work… I love both of them… I'm sure they will both understand my feelings eventually… So I'm fine…"

Yuno was shocked hearing herself say such things. _Back then… I still believed I had a bright future. Where did I start going down the wrong path?_

It took a moment to regain her resolve, before grabbing onto her knife even tighter. "Still, there's a person I have to meet!"

"You too? Do you also have a person you love?"

"Huh!?" 

"Huh?"

Yukki felt a shock of uneasiness pass through him. He was walking alongside his parents towards the hill where they were going to watch the stars. The setting sun gave their surroundings a beautiful golden color. Everything looked perfect, like the boy wanted it to be. Yet, the uneasy feeling kept growing inside him. He stopped walking before a railway crossing. His parents, seemingly unaware that their son had stopped following them, crossed the tracks in front of him. It was only when they reached the other side of the tracks, that they turned around to face him.

"What's the hold up, Yukki-kun?" his father asked.

It took a moment of silence for him to collect his thoughts, before he replied. "I'm sorry, dad, mom. I can't go with you."

Both of his parents were clearly confused. "Why not? You were looking forward to today so much," his mother said.

"It doesn't feel right."

"Yukki-kun?"

"It feels like I should be doing something more important… Yes, I feel there's something I have to do." The uneasy feeling he had, started to turn into determination. He felt he couldn't be here because there was something important he had to do somewhere.

"Yukki-kun…"

"I'm not sure what it is, but… this doesn't feel right."

"Is it that girl?" his father asked. "The girl you like whose name you can't remember."

"Huh?"

Yukki felt another shock pass through him. This time, however, it felt like he started to remember where he needed to be. _That's right, she's Yuno… There's something I need to do with Yuno…_ The bells of the railway crossing started to ring and it wouldn't take long before the barriers would close, stopping him from reaching the side where his parents were.

"Yukki-kun, we'll always be there for you," his father said.

"After all, you're our little boy," his mother added.

"You need to remember her name."

"It should already be on the tip of your tongue, Yukki-kun. I mean, you chose her over the dream you'd lost."

 _That's right,_ Yukki thought, _this is just a dream…_ "Dad… Mom…"

"Go on, Yukki-kun. Take the path you believe is right."

By the time his mother's words were spoken, the barriers of the railway were closed. There was no turning back now, but Yukki didn't want to turn back.

"Yu**… Yun*! Yuno!"

With those words, the sound of the name that Yuno had banished from Yukki's fantasy world, the dream collapsed. The floor, sky, railway and even his parents were shattered in a multitude of tiny pieces. The golden shine of the sunlight was exchanged for the faint light of the half-moon in the night sky. He found himself on top of the school building again. _I need to find Yuno and stop her…_

 _I want to… to be with Yukki,_ Yuno thought. She was still standing next to her third-world equivalent, knife in hand, staring at her diary. A diary that only said that Yukki wasn't coming out of the fantasy world she created for him. The background noise of the fighting Mur Murs had disappeared. They were exhausted from fighting each other and decided to work together and keep the police away from Yuno instead of continuing their struggle. After all, there was no point in fighting now that Yukki was sealed inside the sphere.

 _Yes, that's exactly why I'm killing you._

Yuno firmed her grip on the weapon and charged forward. She lunged the blade towards the helpless girl, ready to pierce her heart with it. Static came from her phone, but she didn't notice while focusing on what she needed to do. But in the last moments before striking her victim, a white figure jumped between her and the third-world's Yuno. A male voice cried in pain when the weapon stabbed his back.

"Yuno… I'll protect you…"

The first-world Yuno jumped back when realizing who she had just wounded. "Dad?"

The man didn't seem to hear her and only took his daughter tighter in his embrace. "It will be all right."

By then, a woman also entered the room. "Yuno!"

"Mom… you're also here…"

"Oh dear!" the woman noted when seeing the wound on her husband's back.

"Saika…" he said, before quickly returning his attention to his daughter. His wife did the same.

"Yuno!"

The woman who had been abusing her daughter a few hours earlier, started crying at seeing her child in such a state. Yuno still couldn't believe what she saw. _I'd always believed that one day, a day we could understand each other would come… But that never happened for me. Then why does it happen here?_ Her eyes started tearing up. _Ah, it's because Yukki changed the future, that everyone was able to understand each other. You're so amazing, Yukki…_

"I'm so jealous," she spoke at the terrified parents who were looking at her, with their daughter in their arms. "But that's fine, I'll just kill all three of you. Because I love Yukki… Because I'm madly in love with Yukki!"

She lunged forward and started moving her knife towards her third-world parents and self.

"Stop!"

Yuno noticed that again, someone moved in between her and her victims to interfere with her plans. At first, she was ready to strike that person, to kill him before he could again stop her from killing her targets. However, while her knife was already moving towards him, she realized that person was someone she'd never want to hurt. "Yukki?"

The boy had escaped from the prison she built for him and wanted to stop her before she could kill the Yuno of the third world. He was lucky Yuno noticed who he was in time, or he would've already been killed by her attack. However, the knife was still coming towards him. Because Yuno's grip on the weapon had loosened at the shock of realizing her lover was standing before her, Yukki managed to push her arm away so he wouldn't be hit. Still, because he pushed the knife away instinctively and without much control, the blade found another victim. The sound of the metal penetrating a body was heard, and blood started gushing out of the wound.

"No," the boy shouted, "Yuno!"

The girl had collapsed on the floor. Yukki took the blade from the wound he accidentally inflicted on his lover, but instantly noted that this wound would be fatal.

He teared up when realizing what he had done. "Yuno… I'm so sorry…"

"Yukki…" she replied in a quickly weakening voice, "you did it… You won the survival game…"

"But I didn't want to win… I wanted to save you."

He embraced her in her dying moments. The other Yuno's parents were still taking care of their daughter in the corner of the room. They were shocked seeing what happened, but also relieved that the threat of being killed seemed to be gone for now.

"You already have, Yukki. This is where I belong…" She also started crying. "Kiss me, Yukki."

The boy and girl shared their final, tender kiss.

"You've gotten better at kissing again… Yu… kki…"

Yuno just smiled while her eyes closed, never to open again. _She finally seems at peace_ , Yukki thought. Even though he had fulfilled his goal of saving the third world's Yuno and knowing the other Yuno died peacefully, he started crying even harder, knowing that he had killed the one girl he truly loved. "Yuno…" 

Above them, the two Mur Murs had noticed what had happened. The first-world version was distraught that her master had died, while the servant of the second world's god was happy to see that the game had come to a conclusion. She took Deus' core and held it solemnly in the air.

"I declare the winner to be the First, Aman- What!?"

Before the creature had finished her sentence, she saw something that caused her to share the distraught feeling of her first-world counterpart. Yukki apparently had taken the knife which killed Yuno and stabbed himself with it.

"If this cruelty is… what it takes to… become a god," he spoke with much effort, "this world doesn't… deserve… one..."

He collapsed next to Yuno's body and took her hand with the last energy he had left inside him. The lovers from two separate worlds had died next to each other, united for eternity in death.

The two Mur Murs looked towards each other in despair.

"Who will become god now?"


	5. Epilogue - Data Migration

It had always been Deus' will that the winner of the survival game became his successor. Unfortunately, since the two Mur Murs still wore the restraints that required them to always follow their god's commands, it was impossible for them to choose a new god after all the participants in the second world's survival game had died. The second world was destroyed, as was the first world because of Yuno's death.

Because Yukki changed the third world so much, the future diaries started working abnormally well and Deus cancelled his plans for a survival game. Instead, all of the participants enjoyed the new lives Yukki's actions had given them. Kurusu got his son's disease diagnosed in time, saving his life. Akise unknowingly remained an observer for Deus, Hinata learnt to take care of her father's peaceful dogs and Tsubaki never lost her parents due to a bomb attack of one of her sect's members. Only the Third seemed to be worse off, after the Twelfth captured him and made him end up in jail.

The third-world Yukki enjoyed a happy life with his parents and his girlfriend, Moe Wakaba. He was still in Yuno's class, but they never became more than acquaintances. Yuno enjoyed newfound happiness since her parents started to care about her. The events at the school building caused them to become a happy family and she no longer needed a Yukki to obsess over.

However, this state remains fragile. Deus Ex Machina's life is still coming to an end and without the survival game, he doesn't know how to find a proper successor. He even considered letting the world end together with his life, but his servant Mur Mur managed to talk him out of it. Time is running out and at this rate, the world Yukki tried to protect would still end. Yet Deus is certain he will find a way to keep the world he created alive until his successor is found.


End file.
